It's been an eventful last week for us at Philips - Continental. We started off the week by sending in our goals to the MGUCI and having them approved. This was followed by our budget being revealed to us and we are already hard at work figuring out how and where to spend it. We have completed all the pre-transfers paper-work required and are currently counting down to when we can finally get down to business.

In the meantime, we received a few special packages which delighted us greatly, as much for the fresh un-flattened bubble wrap as much for the contents inside.

In our initial screening of the Focus catalogues, we had asked them to supply us with the new Izalco frames that the French World Tour team ride in. They not too subtly reminded us that it was their flagship product and that we were around sixty positions lower in rank than their elite customer. As such, we decided to not open our mouths again and risk further embarrassment.
They did not disappoint us, however. On opening the package we discovered this beauty - The Focus Cayo AL 105.

We wanted a tire that would bite (the road, not us or others) and Continental got the drift. After tying up with Zipp, who provided the wheels, they sent us this elite racing tire, aptly named the Continental Gatorskin.

Our TTs would need special tires and Continental had the answer there as well. Presenting the Podium TT, which we hope will make our riders go faster than the rest against the clock.

SRAM sent in all the small shiny bits which make bikes go forward (and backward). We are in love with their equipment and feel like fiddling with them all day long. A small request to our race engineers to please install these asap otherwise they might not survive very long in my hands.

The team management at Philips - Continental have been hard at work over the weekend trying to build a base for their first ever season in Professional cycling.

After more than 48 hours of nerve-wracking negotiations, the management are delighted to announce the first signings of the season.

The first rider to sign on the dotted lines for us is Dutch all-rounder Van Emden. Having spent the 2016 season in the wilderness after being sacked by eBuddy, he has been hard at work to improve his overall abilities. He joins us a vital cog in our flat and cobbled races.

OVL	FLA	MON	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FTR	DHI	PRL
72.25	76	62	67	73	74	74	72	72	73	73	60	64	78

Another strongman of the sport, Timmer, joins us from our friends at Isostar - Adriatic. His all-round abilities will allow him to support our leaders both on the flat as well on the climbs. The team management will be hoping he can keep up his form from last season where his best result was 2nd place in the Great Ocean Road Challenge.

OVL	FLA	MON	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FTR	DHI	PRL
71.44	75	73	71	63	72	69	73	55	71	73	76	66	63

Our cobbles leader for the season, Drucker also joins us from Isostar-Adriatic in a combined deal worth 480,000. His best results last season included 2nd place in the GC in the Tour de Faso, 4th in the Tour of Almaty and 2nd in the Luxembourg ITT National Championships, in addition a number of other Top 10 finishes.

OVL	FLA	MON	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FTR	DHI	PRL
75.14	74	60	65	68	75	71	72	77	74	75	67	79	74

The Philips - Continental management team can confirm a couple more fruits of their labour this weekend.

Every one cannot be a leader, but every strong leader needs dependable lieutenants. Joining us as primary mountain domestique for the season is Rob Ruijgh, another former rider for Pro Tour Dutch team, eBuddy. After three solid seasons with our fellow Dutchmen, he found himself out of a contract at the end of the 2016 season. We got in touch and he was interested to be a part of our project. Also, good with the occasional breakaway, we are hoping that his experience will help our fledgling team establish itself.

OVL	FLA	MON	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FTR	DHI	PRL
72.61	69	75	72	67	73	72	71	64	61	75	71	64	67

Another rider without a contract in 2016 who grabbed our attention was Ronan van Zandbeek. He joins as part of our TT team for the 2017 season. His support stats make him a good pace-setter in the flats too.

OVL	FLA	MON	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FTR	DHI	PRL
72.24	73	58	69	76	71	71	72	64	61	69	75	73	76

Almost everyone who follow football are aware of the faulty max machine which scuppered Real Madrid's chances of signing David de Gea from Manchester United a couple of years ago. Well, it seems that fax machine issues are not as uncommon as one would think.

The team management was rather pleased with the deals they were able to do over the weekend. But in our child-like enthusiasm, we failed to realize that we had made an invalid bid on Dutch sprinter Boy van Poppel. The scourge of school assignments the world over, the Copy-Paste error had snuck into our bid and we were none the wiser. When we realized our error, there was less than 10 minutes left for the bidding to close. We hastily prepared the paperwork and were ready to send it over to MGUCI when disaster struck. Every time we tried to send the fax, the machine would fail to connect to the network! We kept trying and trying and were eventually successful in sending the documents. However, an official from the MGUCI got in touch with us a couple of minutes later to say that we had missed the deadline by just over a minute!

Our carelessness has cost us a promising rider. We were determined not to make the same mistake again and spent over an hour making sure that all our standing bids were valid. One mistake is fine, but if this happens again, some heads will need to roll!

Right! Time to announce a couple of leaders. Two much awaited signings with the hope of challenging in different types of races.

Our sprint leader for the season barring some other big name signing. Yet another rider formerly associated with eBuddy, Kreder surprisingly spent the 2016 season out of contract. Despite this, we were mightily impressed with what he had to offer in terms of sprinting abilities and signed him on for the 2017 season. Still with a couple of good years left in him, and with a lot of experience in the peloton, he should be able to first lead and then mentor our sprint department for a few years to come.

OVL	FLA	MON	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FTR	DHI	PRL
75.28	73	63	70	64	72	68	80	66	78	80	56	64	64

The quintessential beast on the bike, Grabovski joins our team to lead our Time Trial department. The first rider for whom we have looked a long way away from our focus region, we believe that this is another success for our scouting department. With well rounded primary and support stats, Grabovski should be a powerful domestique on non-TT stages, in both the flats and the climbs.

OVL	FLA	MON	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FTR	DHI	PRL
73.71	74	71	71	77	74	73	73	61	60	69	74	65	77

Aquarius97 wrote:
Man, you're killing me. Why did you have to remind me about De Gea's failed transfer...

Another leader sealed! This one is special.

Leading our charge up the many different slopes in this season's campaign will be French climbing specialist Romain Bardet. The competition in the climbs is expected to be very tough in the CT this year but we believe we have found a good candidate to challenge the best of the best. With good support lined up, Bardet should be able to provide plenty of points. He has age on his side meaning that this partnership is likely to last for a few years to come.

OVL	FLA	MON	HIL	TT	STA	RES	REC	COB	SPR	ACC	FTR	DHI	PRL
74.12	66	77	74	59	72	70	71	51	52	75	67	71	59